After relentless pummelling over the last week and a half, it seems the much vaunted Tiger Woods' brand is beginning to crumble. Not to a massive degree (Nike hasn't announced it is dumping him) but still, as Dylan almost said, you don't necessarily need wholesale public humiliation on the marketing front to know which way the wind is blowing.

Firstly, Bloomberg has just reported that not one of Woods sponsors has broadcast an advert featuring their most famous (and most well-remunerated) pitchman since 29 November, two days after the initial car crash.

The last prime-time ad featuring the 33-year-old golfer was a 30-second Gillette Co. spot that ran on Nov. 29, according to New York-based Nielsen. Woods was also absent from commercials on a number of weekend sports programs, including NFL games, Nielsen said.

"Last weekend there wasn't any advertisement during those games," said Aaron Lewis, a spokesman at Nielsen.

Darren Rovell, the sports business reporter at the US TV network CNBC, reponds on his excellent Twitter feed that "only eight Woods adverts were shown in the whole of November". Still, it doesn't look good.

What also doesn't look good is the announcement from Gatorade that it is withdrawing its "Tiger Focus" drink. Rovell again:

Gatorade officials confirmed to CNBC on Tuesday afternoon that its subline "Gatorade Tiger Focus" will be discontinued.

The decision, they say, has absolutely nothing to do with recent events surrounding Woods, but more to do with a strategy devised months ago to streamline their offerings.

Gatorade officials provided a statement to CNBC which says: "We decided several months ago to discontinue Gatorade Tiger Focus along with some other products to make room for our planned series of innovative products in 2010. We hope to share more about our 2010 plans soon."

They would say that, of course. But in fairness the decision to dump the "Tiger Focus" drink was revealed in the November 25th issue of the always readable Beverage Digest (my copy must have been mislaid in the post) - two days before the scandal broke.

On a personal note, I would to point out that having once tried Tiger Focus (think liquid chewing gum) it comes as no surprise to me that it has been a flop.

Meanwhile, Woods will continue to be sponsored by Gatorade, although in what capacity is unclear, especially (as Geoff Shackelford points out) his image is mysteriously missing from the company website. Seems curious, especially as they signed a deal with the golfer in 2007 reportedly worth $100m.